August 2001

The story of this month was the budget. The bills were rolling in and as costs were finalized against the assumptions we made at the start of the year, the picture was getting gloomy.

As we started when we went into this whole venture we were only prepared to put in what we could afford to lose, no more. This figure would be decided at the start of each year. A budget would be drawn up and the essential items prioritized. The idea was that non essential items would be left to the end of the year and only if everything else was already paid for. However, it was now August and were running out of cash. If we carried on as with all our plans we would be 20% over budget, which would mean another large cash injection. We were not prepared to do this. Our reasoning is straightforward. If you keep topping up, the costs spiral out of control and what was a dream becomes a nightmare. We had committed a certain amount at the start of the year and if we couldn't do it all we wouldn't do it all.

We sat down with Manie to go through the reasons why we were where we were and to explain our position. Because he is a sensible guy he hadn't committed us to anything over the prearranged spend, but that spend was now almost fully committed. A few of his pet projects would have to go out of the window. Firstly, the weather station. This was an easy cut. We would try to pull it into next year's budget. His 4 wheal ATV was also cut from the budget. In order to save us from another big repair bill for the bakkie (we had a shock when the last bill came in) we decided on getting a second hand trial bike. Manie could use this to check on the vineyard and save the bakkie from the steep bumpy tracks. Manie came up with a new method of organic soil conditioning which saved costs significantly. Out went the compost and mulch which was hugely expensive and in came the Ecofert which he had investigated and seen in action.

These cuts get us back below budget. The next question was how we would allocate the resources we had left. We had already committed to the irrigation (which was essential anyway) so that was already decided. The drainage was already a commitment, so it was a decision on staffing levels that was needed.

We have seven staff on the farm and Manie reckoned we needed an extra one staff member to each hectare under vine, plus the foreman, brought in everyday. The foreman is paid twice what the others are paid and drives the truck to pick them up from the town everyday. Effectively 23 staff to be paid each day for 20 days per month, 12 months of the year. It was important to us to build a team of guys who would be committed to the vineyard and take pride in their work. Manie spent a week training and tooling them up. At the end of the week five of them decided that the work was not for them and threw in the towel. The others were given a 16% pay rise as an incentive to stay and do the work required.

Looking after the vineyard, weeding, pruning and applying the soil conditioner is a labour intensive business, the more so as we were organic. In order that the work was no too repetitive each member of staff was assigned an area of the vineyard to look after. In this way he would do all of the various tasks required and hopefully be proud of his patch. That was the idea anyway. We shall see how it works out. Manie felt that with well incentivized staff we could manage with this number. We were, however, prepared to hire more should the vines demand it.

We didn't get off to a great start as a third of the lime and caphos was blown away by a freak wind before it could be worked into the soil. This had to be replaced. Next Manie had to build a road to the top vineyard or no equipment would have got up the steep incline when the rain came. This cost was unexpected and not budgeted for. We had not budgeted for any drainage at all. This was obviously a mistake but we had looked at the soil reports and seen that it was all self draining to a good depth. What we hadn't taken into account was the run off from the hard unprepared soil onto the ripped vineyard. Three hundred metres of drainage costs a lot.

But the main reason we were over budget was very simple. We had actually ended up planting 12 hectares rather than the original plan for 10. This meant that we had to spend more on labour and bought more poles and put in more irrigation than budgeted for. The number of vines was not proportionally more, because we had widened the spacing for the Mourvedre but there was still an increase.

How this had happened was a bit of a mystery, even to Manie. The original survey was on the generous side. We think the steep slopes must have thrown the theoldolite man off his stride! Manie had then extended some of the rows to even the blocks up. The bulldozer man ripped more than he should have to accommodate the windbreaks.

Basically we had prepared 12 hectares instead of 10, and the rest followed - almost 20% more vines, 20% more poles, 20% more man hours of labour.

The only good news was that through good economies of scale and Manie running a tight ship our cost per hectare planted was around 10% lower than for the previous year, even with inflation. So in the end this mollified it, but still the actual cash had to be found. We were also lucky in that our final transfer from offshore was about 5% more valuable in Rand terms than the initial.

30850 vines planted at 1.2m spacing by 2.74m between the rows giving 10.1435 ha

5000 vines planted 1.44 by 2.74 giving 1.9728 ha

Total about 12 ha, plus last year's vineyard of 11766 vines at 1.2 by 2.74 giving 3.8686 ha

So in total we have 15.984 ha of which 4.822 is Cab, 9.190 is Shiraz, and 1.973 is Mourvedre. All in all 58.3 kilometres of rows.

SH5C on R101.14 6390 vines planted 2.74 x 1.2 in 2000

SH1A on R101.14 6390 vines planted 2.74 x 1.2 in 2000

SH1 on R99 3750 vines planted 2.74 x 1.2 in 2001

SH9C on R99 8000 vines planted 2.74 x 1.2 in 2001

SH5C on R99 8000 vines planted 2.74 x 1.2 in 2001

SH99 on R99 550 vines planted 2.74 x 1.2 in 2001

Cabernet Sauvignon

CS46C on R101.14 2430 vines planted 2.74 x 1.2 in 2000

CS46C on R101.14 1686 vines planted 2.74 x 1.2 in 2000

CS15C on R99 3050 vines planted 2.74 x 1.2 in 2001

CS163I on R99 2500 vines planted 2.74 x 1.2 in 2001

CS163I on R110 2000 vines planted 2.74 x 1.2 in 2001

CS169 on R99 3000 vines planted 2.74 x 1.2 in 2001

Mouvedre

MT11A on R99 5000 vines planted 2.74 x 1.44 in 2001

Now this lot was in the ground the work keeping the things healthy and alive was just starting. The major, if not Herculean, task was the weeding. How were we to keep the vines from getting completely swamped by weeds and strangled to death. We had no recourse to the usual "scorched earth" policy of non organic farmers who simply spray weedkiller before planting, cover the rows in plastic sheeting and then give another good dose of weedkiller when the wines are 800mm tall.

Manie's first thought was to buy a mower-mulcher that would cut the vegetation between the rows, mulch it and heap it neatly on the rows. This would create an organic mulch of weed material which would smother weed development and contain the natural plant hormones that would naturally suppress weed growth. This was a good idea except that during the summer (due to lack of rain) nothing really grows between the rows and summer cover crops are very patchy. We could not guarantee a decent mulsh to keep the rows weed free. In fact we would probably end up with the areas between the rows beautifully weed free and the rows where we were irrigating a jungle of weeds. Exactly the opposite of what we wanted. Manie had also thought that he could "harvest" mulch from the undeveloped part of the farm, but this looked less and less practical.

Dr Jan Jacobs from AgroOrganics had a look at the blocks and gave us his firm opinion that a good organic mulsh was essential for weed suppression and soil development, so we decided to look for something that would do the trick. Straw was not an option, but we had been given a quote from Brenochem for the organic matter left after they rendered grape skins and pips for tartaric acid. Brenochem is a locally based business that collects the leftovers from wine production, the pips and skins from the tanks and presses. This is high temperature treated to kill the bugs and squeezed of all acid. What is left is ph neutral pure organic matter. Total cost per cubic metre delivered was less than straw, and the product is much denser. It also wouldn't blow away on the first big gust. There was a certain symmetry in using grape skins as a mulch, and it would break down a lot quicker to condition the soil. It looked like the best solution, so after ensuring it would pass muster with the certification guys we went with it.

The Michelangelo International Wine Awards results came through in August and we were delighted when our near neighbour in Tulbagh Rijk's Private Cellar won two "Double Gold" awards, one for the Pinotage 2000 and one for his Sauvignon Blanc 2001. This is a fantastic achievement for what is his first real vintage. To put it in perspective thousands of wines were entered, only 200 received any sort of award and only 12 of those were awarded "DG". The wine maker Charl du Plessis and the whole team were over the moon and it certainly put Tulbagh on the map. The wine now coming out of Tulbagh is getting recognized as top quality and this is great for all of us. Hopefully we can emulate this achievement.

Other wine makers winning awards from the local area were our friends at Spice Route. Spice Route Pinotage 1999 won Gold at the IWC Red Wine of The Year Awards and Spice Route Shiraz 1999 won Silver. The link between Rijk's, Spice Route and ourselves is the soil type, the Malmesbury shale as it is called, and we hope that the benefits will show through in our wine when it gets to be drunk.